Dressed for comfort, in my mind a soupçon of sturdy or street chic, on my way to yoga class yesterday. The Blundstones are in deference to icy docks, my mustard Gap khakis hide a pair of yoga tights, and despite two layers (including a cashmere sweater) under my old leather jacket (Mackage, a Canadian company I’m happy to support), I was grateful for the woolly, stylish warmth of the Aritzia shawl my daughter gave me last Christmas. It’s a bulky wrap, to be honest, but so welcome during Shavasana (I often visualize it as a hug from her, which makes it even more appreciated).
Couldn’t resist playing with different angles, as you can see. Blame it on my old Banana Republic fedora….you know what a hat did for Frosty, after all….
I’m off to Vancouver again today, as soon as my students finish their exam. We have some Nola time ahead tomorrow, and on Sunday my sister’s hosting a family brunch to introduce her new granddaughter to the clan. I’m so excited to meet this wee grand-niece (and to meet my nephew as a new dad, his brother as a loving uncle) and to have her meet her cousins. She and our little Frankie are only weeks apart. We’re a family that has always been well supplied with little ones, but we seem never to take that for granted, and I suspect there’ll be a good turnout, everyone impatient for their chance to snuggle. . .
And what are you up to this weekend? Remember to pace yourselves! It can get crazy this month!
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Preparing for my viva… And eating too much chocolate… All this brain work and my body says Feed Me.
Normal service will be resumed idc
Oh, good luck! Wondering if the viva (voce, right?) is what we call our Oral Defense. Latin always does the job more elegantly, truly. . . .Go chocolate!
Thank you… yes, it's the viva voce, Realise that I have never heard it called an Oral Defense before but now I know why my (Canadian) supervisor is talking in terms of defending my thesis. To me it will be more of a case of going into the meeting room and silently screaming AAAARGH…
At some point, if you're lucky, you'll look around and realize that you're actually enjoying the chance to talk about your project with interested scholars who have some understanding of its significance. But there will probably be some silent screaming as well. What I remember most, though, is the way my face looked in the photos taken at the lunch immediately after — I looked the proverbial ten years' younger, really — the way my face relaxed, opened. . . . it revealed to me just how much the diss-writing had been weighing me down. And for a year or two afterward, I'd recollect and just smile and sigh a very satisfied, happy sigh. You'll be there soon!
Mater – thank you so much for this encouragement and, if I can say this without sounding overly gushing, your postings have been a bright light over the past months of every waking hour, seven day weeks devoted to the thesis. Reading your calm insights into your life provided a lovely respite from the rigours…
And in one of your posts you reminded me of heterotopia – and into the chapter it went…
Yes, it was good to talk about my work with two scholars in my field and to realise that actually – yes I think I can say it – some of my work is actually pretty good (much is not so good but that is always the way). Anyway I passed, and I had the delight of sitting in a bar afterwards with people around me who are important to me in very separate parts of my life – fellow students decades my junior, my supervisor, the examiners, very good and true friends, and my husband and adult children – and seeing them all come together for the first time and all get on famously.
Oh, gush away! Kidding, but seriously, thanks so much for telling me my words might make a wee difference. And congratulations! Savour your accomplishment! May you keep walking on those clouds for weeks, months–nay, years!–to come!